The Peabody Awards

Bob Woodruff’s survival and recovery from massive wounds suffered in Iraq are often described as miraculous. Equally miraculous is his commitment to turning that personal experience to great public purpose. His series of remarkable news reports begins with a terrifying examination of events leading to and following the explosion that almost took his life and those of his crew. From that point, the comments of family members, most powerfully his wife, Lee, and of friends and colleagues, doctors and nurses lead viewers into the excruciating personal aspects of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). Few who suffer such injuries fare so well as Woodruff. One nurse recalls perhaps “five who’ve been able to walk back into the ICU and thank us for what we did.” Bob Woodruff is not content to let the thousands of others be forgotten. In visits with the wounded, first in hospitals and later in their homes, his empathy with them and their families overflows. His interviews with the doctors who treat them explain the costs, physical and emotional, for the wounded and those who love them. In interviews with bureaucrats, he pins them with numbers and questions their commitments and services. Even here, however, the aim is not to “get” someone. Rather, it is always to help someone else. For its professionalism, its compassion and precision, a Peabody Award is presented to Bob Woodruff Reporting: Wounds of War—The Long Road Home for Our Nation’s Veterans.